Thursday, February 21, 2013

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at TNA Impact Wrestling 2/21/13. After a week off from TNA, how does the show fair? Let's get this over with and begin.

We open up the show with Hulk Hogan. I didn't review last week's show, but I do know that Hulk put together a series of matches to determine who will be the #1 Contender to the world title. Yeah, remember that championship? Well, Hogan decides to screw last week's show in the ass by ignoring that concept completely and giving the title match to a guy who wasn't even part of those qualifying matches, Bully Ray. So, it makes last week's show a complete waste of time. Maybe a week off was a good thing? Sigh….I'm not even surprised anymore, but you think they would at least try to follow the kayfabe they just established LAST WEEK. If anything, this looks worse since there was only a few hours/days in between the actual tapings of these episodes. It makes the creative staff look even worse. Did anybody even plan out an entire month of episodes before filming? Anyway, Buddy Ray is still trying to play up his good guy routine, so he request for Hogan and Sting to take on the Aces & Eights. Buddy Ray's army: Now coming to a retirement home near you.

You know you have a clusterf*** when you start creating 8-man tag matches. The match was okay for what it was worth, but geeze was it difficult to keep track of. The finish comes when Storm hits the Last Call, but TNA wants Joseph to mean something, so they encourage him to hit the OBJECTION! (That's what I'm calling it). The good guys end up picking up the victory. Wait, did Hernandez even do anything? This is what happens in 8-man tag matches. You just don't get a chance to shine, playa.

Thanks to Robbie T not helping E cheat, Rockstar picks up the rollup victory. I've had a few weeks to think about it and I still stand by my original thoughts. Rockstar Spud is the worst name I've ever heard in my life. He's gonna go places; like the free clinic. After the match, E and T get in each other's face. T is about to beat up E, but E ends up running away. Wow, did that make any sense? What it all boiled down to was Rob Terry getting tired of Robbie E's garbage. The breakup has been teased since last year, so this should come as no surprise. Not really sure what this means for both guys, but who really cares? It's an annoying Jersey dude and a jacked-up dancing fool. Do you really want to see either of these guys go farther? If anything, they have both found their place in the comedy department. While not perfect, they do offer up a good laugh from time to time.

I think moving forward, I'm just gonna skip analyzing women's wrestling matches until an actual storyline is written…..Or when I start giving a s***. Tara ends up getting eliminated first. I would comment on this, but that would mean breaking my rule. Velvet wins the match and is the new champion. Yep, still not caring.

Winner via pinfall and NEW KO Champion: Velvet Sky

Match #4: Samoa Joe vs Garett Bischoff

In an uninteresting match, Wes Brisco arrives to interfere. After the match, Kurt Angle arrives for the save. Every time they call Kurt the Cyborg, I think of Cyborg from Teen Titans, except with more broken necks. Kurt issues a challenge to Wes. This is still pending, but it seems Kurt vs Wes in a cage match for Lockdown is set to take place. A veteran of the TNA roster vs a rookie in the worst stable of all time? I can just smell the ratings…..

Winner via interference: Samoa Joe

Match #5: RVD vs Kenny King; X Division Title

So, let me ask a legit question. How many times has Kenny gotten an X Division title match this year? Part of the reason this division is a joke is because they hand out title matches like it's freakin' candy. This match has been done so many times that I've lost all interest in watching this match. It doesn't make RVD look better since it's literally beating the same guy, and Kenny isn't getting anything out of this since he's always losing against RVD. This is doing nothing for the X Division, in whole. The definition of lazy writing. RVD wins yet again. Surprised? You shouldn't be.

Winner via repeat: RVD

Match #6: Bully Ray, Sting, and Hulk Hogan vs Aces & Eights

You know there's something wrong with the combine age for three guys is over 150 years. I'm gonna beat you down with my cane! Hogan didn't even make this match because it would be later revealed that Card Games attacked him. Either that or Hogan slept past the alarm clock. Despite not having the numbers, Card Games still struggles to deal with Bully and Sting. I understand what Tazz is trying to do here, but talking about how they have the edge is pretty depressing. The finish comes when Aces & Eights bring out Brooke Hogan and Hulk crawls towards the ramp in an injured state. This whole scene is ridiculous. The stable brings out Brooke, but why? Why did they capture her only to let her go minutes later? To separate Bully from Sting? I guess that could be the argument, but that's quite a stretch. Bully runs to attend to his 'wife', while leaving Sting at the mercy of this stable. Congratulations Aces & Eights, you picked up a victory. It was a 3-on-1 match, but you did it! You beat mediocrity! You think with their history that Kurt and Joe would've saved Sting, but what the hell would I know? Just slap 'wrestling logic' all over it and there's you explanation.

Winner via luck: Aces & Eights

Overall Impression:

I know I didn't watch last week's show, but this is what I come back to? It was almost as if I didn't miss anything. That's probably a good thing or else I would've been really confused with this show, but it still doesn't take away from the fact this show was just kinda there. It wasn't good or bad. It just falls in the territory of average, meaning you aren't missing a whole lot by skipping this one. The segments were 'meh' and the matches were okay, at best. I'm a little disappointed with tonight's show since this was their last taping in the UK…..A taping that was done almost a month ago. I understand having to film in advance, but taping a month in advance is going overboard. Well, I need to wrap this up. Nothing really happens in this episode, which is why it isn't the most intriguing show to watch. Stuff does happen, but not enough to make it a watcher. That does it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one.

It annoys me when TNA do this, it annoys me because it could be soooo much better. We need competition to WWE but with the drug mule the current champion (who's he fueding with right now btw - no-one) and the x division a mess, there's nothing to watch.

What I want to see is bolstering the x-div with some of the mid card, sure we've all seen styes-daniels too many time but hell sling them into the x-div along with joe/magnus/etc also, I would put aries back in there and give him a fued/run at the x div (they have got to get rid of RVD) and get Roode back into the running for the heavyweight title (wasn't this the roode/aries plan a few weeks ago?) we could them have a "unification" bout of some sort between aries and roode with added wrestling shenanigans to ensure they both come out of it. Hell, I'm still waiting for the storm/roode payoff from way back.

Do we even know who writes TNA these days, it *really* does seem like they come up with the show 5 minutes before the cameras roll.

I smell "Buddy Ray" becoming "Bully Ray" again when he wins the world title and then reveals he's part of Aces and Eights (or the leader of Aces and Eights) and his whole marriage to Brooke was just to get his hands on the world title - that's my prediction - time will tell - K. Hill - later!

I've only been watching TNA for the last 18 months but I have to confess it's not intriguing me at the moment - I switched off halfway through last week & haven't bothered with this week's at all. It just feels stuck in a rut - there are no storylines I care about or wrestlers, except maybe Hardy and they're seemingly running dry of ideas for him too. I liked the whole Brooke/Bully thing to begin with ut it's dragging on too much now. Bully probably will be found to be a member of Aces & Eights but will that spice things up? Not really.

As a UK fan I was gutted I couldn't afford to go to the 2012 UK tour, now I'm glad I didn't waste my money in going to 2013's!

I'd like to know what you thought of it being in a stadium rather than the impact zone? What were your thoughts on the London crowd and how TNA did the venue and everything?

Personally, for me they have needed to get into stadiums on the road for ages, the impact zone not only sucks any life out of the wrestlers who put their lives on the line for nothing but silence, but the impact zone does not speak for the entire TNA viewing public. Not everyone loves Hardy, hence why he got booed and Aries cheered when he won the championship. Same goes for a few wrestlers on their roster.

I thought the London crowd were disappointing and should have been much much louder like they have been in the past. I know they're only just starting but when you compare TNA to WWE in big stadiums, TNA seems dark, like it's filmed in a warehouse using a potato. God knows why they insist on using Wembley and not the O2 arena like WWE does which is a much better venue for this type of event. The WWE ramp, fireworks, stage, titantron all makes it larger than life, whereas TNA doesn't have that yet so it all seems a bit lackluster. But they might not have the means nor money for that yet so there's time. It's just good they're finally seeing what a bigger crowd can bring to the table rather than that fatty beardy guy I have to look at every week in the crowd who has no expression.